Knitted seamless hosiery and process of making same



Jan. 26, 1965 o. R. YORK ETAI.

KNITTED SEAMLES-S HOSIERY AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME Filed May 14, 1962United States Patent Ofce 3,155,92 Patented Jan. 26, 1965 3,166,922KNTTED SEAMLESS HSlERY AND PRUCESS 01? MAKHNG SAME Urin R. York and .loe("3. Walser, r., High Peint, NJC., assignors to Morpul Research, inc., acorporation of North Carolina Filed May 14, 1962, Ser. No. 194,531 1Claim. (Ci. S6-172) This invention relates to knitted seamless hosieryand more particularly to rnock rib seamless hosiery and process ofmaking same.

Heretofore, in mock rib hosiery or socks such as shown in Elder patent,Re. 24,384, October 29, i957, it has been common to knit mock rib sockson conventional needle cylinder hosiery machines in alternate courses ofstretchable yarn with the courses having floats therein. The floatsbeing formed of stretchable yarn tend to contract the sock coursewisethereby to cause the stitch loops adjacent the floats to protrudeoutwardly in walewise extending ribs. This creates a mock rib effect.The courses having the iioats have been formed heretofore ofnonpreshrunk stretchable yarn and it has been found that subsequentfinishing operations have caused the lioats to shrink. The shrinkage ofthe floats limits subsequent coursewise stretching of the sock to asufficient extent to prevent the sock in many instances from beingcomfortably pulled over the foot and heel of a wearer. This results inundue stress in many instances as the sock is being pulled on and causesunnecessary wear and tear on such sock.

The present invention overcomes the -above mentioned diiiiculty byemploying a preshrunk stretchable yarn in the oats of mock rib sockswhereby there is no shrinkage coursewise in the floats upon subsequentfinishing operations and the socks may be comfortably pulled over thefeet of a wearer.

An object of the invention is to provide a mock rib sock land process ofmaking same in which a plurality of courses of preshrunk stretchableyarn are knitted at selected Wales in the mock rib portion and floatacross intervening wales, wherebysuch sock retains its inherentstretchability, unaffected by subsequent finishing operations.

A further object of the invention is to provide a process of producing'amock rib leg portion of seamless hosiery comprising knitting a yarn inya plurality of alternate courses at every Wale, preshrinking astretchable yarn, and knitting the preshrunk yarn in a plurality ofintervening courses at selected Wales only with the yarn oating overintervening wales, whereby the mock rib leg portion retains its inherentstretchability unaffected by subsequent finishing operations.

An additional object is to provide a mock rib sock and a process forproducing same in which a preshrunk stretchable yarn is knitted inalternate courses at selected wales and an ladditional yarn is knittedat least in some courses of the preshrunk yarn to plate such preshrunkyarn.

The knitted seamless hosiery and apparatus for carrying out the processof forming the hosiery is shown in the accompanying drawing, forming apart of this application, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a mock rib sock embodying thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary View of the leg portion of the sock inFIG. l and showing some of the wales and courses therein;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the knitting stations in a circularknitting machine for knitting the mock rib sock shown in FIG. 1 andshowing needles thereat;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic plan view of the knitting stations in FIG. 3showing the yarn being fed thereto; and,

FG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a modified form of the mock ribportion of a sock in which the preshrunk stretchable yarn is plated withother yarn.

Referring now to the drawing for a better understanding of ourinvention, we show in FlG. l a mock rib sock indicated generally by thenumeral 10 and having a top portion 11, a leg portion 12, and a footportion 13. A heel pocket is indicated by the numeral 14 and toe pocketindicated by the numeral 16. A high splice portion 17 is provided aboveheel pocket 14. Foot portion 13 has an upper half or instep portionindicated by numeral 15. The above portions of a mock rib sock areconventional.

Knitting of such a sock has been on a conventional 3 and 3/4 or 4 inchneedle cylinder circular hosiery machine as indicated partially in FIG.4 by numeral 19. Knitting machine 19 has a main feeding or knittingstation 21 and an auxiliary feeding station 22 and two complete coursesare knitted upon each rotation of the needle cylinder. Knitting of theyarns at main station 21 and 1auxiliary station 22 has been carried outin such a manner to give sock 10 a rib appearance on -leg portion 12 andinstep 15 which resembles closely a true rib knit fabric.

Top portion 11 is knit in a conventional manner with a multilarnentstretchable yarn being fed to and knit in every course and every walewhile a covered elastic strand is laid in the fabric in ltheconventional manner. Heel land `toe pockets 14 and 16, respectively, areknit in a conventional manner although it is preferred that some plaincourses be knit in high splice portion 17 above heel pocket 14.

The mock rib `area in leg portion 12 and instep 15 as shown in FIG. 2comprises a plurality of alternate main courses C-l and C-3 which areknitted at main feeding station 21 with body yarn indicated by theletter M. Intervening courses C-2 and C4 are knitted at auxiliaryfeeding station 22 with a stretchable, preshrunk yarn A.

Wales W-1, lll/2, W-3, W-4 and W-S are formed in each of the courses.Yarn A is fed at auxiliary feeding station 22 and floats across walesW-Z and W-4 to form floats F in courses C*2 Iand C-4. Stitch loops 23 ofyarn M forming wales W-Z and `W4 are approximately the same length asthe combined lengths of two intervening stitch loops Z1 of yarn Mforming wales W-1, W-3 and W-5. Thus, contraction of floats F ofstretchable yarn A causes the longer stitch loops 23 -to protrudeoutwardly in Walewise extending ribs thereby creating the mock ribeffect.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, needles 25 and 26 are provided at mainfeeding station 21 and yarn M is fed to each of the needles 25, 26 atmain feeding station 21 through a guide 27. At auxiliary station 22,preshrunk yarn A is fed through guide 2S only to alternate needles 26.Upon rotation of the needle cylinder two complete courses are knitted,one at main feeding station 21 with body yarn M and another at auxiliaryfeeding station 122 with preshrunk yarn A. A conventional raise cam (notshown) raises needles 25 and 26 before reaching guide 27 and afterpassing guide 27 needles 25 and 26 move downwardly to position 31 andknit yarn M thereat. At latch clearing position 32 needles 25 and 26move down to their original position indicated at 33. When needles 25and 26 reach auxiliary feeding station Z2, the procedure is repeated butwith the conventional raise cam (not shown) engaging only ialternateneedles 26 to allow yarn A to be engaged at feeding station 22 only byalternate sneasae a needles 25. Thus, at auxiliary feeding stationalternate or selected wales are knitted.

As a specific example, a pair of strands of non-preshrunk seventy deniertwo-ply stretchable yarns are fed at main lfeeding station 2.1 While astrand of seventy denier two-ply stretchable preshrunk yarn is fed toalternate needles at auxiliary feeding station Z2. The stretchable yarnmay be texturized by any of the Well-known processes, such as Fuflon,Superloft, or Helanoa, to inipart a crimp or curl to the individualsynthetic filaments to render the yarns stretchable. Stretchable yarn Afed to auxiliary feeding station 22 is preshrunk by knitting the yarninto a plain tube, finishing the same and then unraveling and rewindingthe yarn on a cone to be fed at auxiliary station 22. The yarn could bepreshrunk by other methods, such as winding it onto a collapsible bobbinand then subjecting it to steam heat in an autoclave.

Yarn A rin which fioats F are .'provided is a preshrunk stretchable yarnand may be formed of a natural or a syn thetic yarn. A yarn which Wehave found to Work ef ectively is a thermoplastic, synthetic,stretchable yarn such as multilament nylon. Natural yarns such as Wooland cotton may now be formed into stretchable yarns and may be employedsatisfactorily. Daeron (a condensation only polymer of terephthalic acidand ethylene glycol) and w Orlon (polyacrylonitrile) may also beemployed satisfactorily.

While body yarn M in courses C-l and C-S has been indicated as being astretchable yarn it is understood that yarn M may be a non-stretcha-bleyarn such as cotton, rayon, acetate, nylon, Orion, wool, Daeron or acombina tion of non-stretchable yarn made from a combination of these.Also, body yarn M may be preshrunk if formed of a stretchable yarn. Thespecific embodiment of sock if? shown in the drawings discloses yarn Aknit in alternate Wales.

By having yarn A preshrunk, there is no subsequent shrinking thereof andthe size of the knitted loops is preserved. In some instances it isdesirable to form yarn A plated with another yarn, such as Orion platedover stretchable nylon yarn. By preshrinking the stretchable yarn overwhich Orion or the like is plated, suicient tension may be applied tothe stretchable yarn so thatthe elasticity of the fabric is retainedeven after finishing. Other processes may be combined with thepreshrinking process so that the time and cost -for the additionalprocess is held to a minimum. An example is in the dyeing of preshrunkyarn at substantially the same time as the preshrinking of the yarn.Only a small additional amount of time is involved in dyeing the yarnwith the preshrinking process. If a yarn had to be dyed separatelyconsiderable additional time and expense would be involvedas comparedWith the dyeing of a yarn when it is being preshrunk.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a modified form of the mock rib` portion of asock is shown having at least some of the courses of preshrunkstretchable yarn plated with another yarn, such Vas Orlon. Course C-Sshown in FIG. 5 is formed of preshrunk stretchable yarn A as in theernbodirnent shown in FlG. 2, but has an additional yarn 2S d addedthereto thereby to reinforce course C-S. Yarn 23 may be fed throughalternate or selected needles at station 22 or may `be knitted at aseparate feeding station.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that We have provided mock ribhosiery or socks in which a preshrunk stretchable yarn is knit inalternate courses and in selected Wales while iioating acrossintervening Wales. A body yarn is knit in alternate courses of everyWale. ri`he floats formed by the preshrunk stretchable yarn in alternatecourses do not shrink upon subsequent finishing operations such ascleaning and dyeing, and the size of the loops or stitches formed by thestretchable yarn is preserved. Further, the preshrunk stretchable yarnmay be plated with other yarn and yet the elasticity of the finishedfabric is retained.

Thus, a seamless sock formed in accordance with the foregoing may becomfortably pulled over the foot and heel of a wearer without unduestress being exerted on the sock. This tends to decrease unnecessarywear and tear on the sock in placing the sock on and removing it fromthe foot of a wearer.

While We have shown our invention in more than one form, it will beobvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but issusceptible of various other changes and modifications Without departingfrom the spirit thereof, and We desire, therefore, that only suchlimitations shall be placed thereupon as are specifically set forth inthe appended claim.

What We claim is:

A self supporting, knitted seamless sock having a foot portion and a legportion,

(a) said leg portion having a plurality of courses of multi-filament,synthetic, thermoplastic, stretchable yarn knitted at every Wale and aplurality of courses of preshrunk multilarnent, synthetic, thermoplasticstretchable yarn knitted at selected Wales and fioating acrossintervening Wales whereby a mock rib portion is obtained which retainsits inherent stretchability after the sock is subjected to nishingoperations.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 24,384 10/57Elder et al. 66-l72 l,i94,675 8/16 Scott 66-180 1,317,897 10/19 Scott66-41 1,377,459 5/21 Bosworth 66-41 2,564,245 8/51 Billion 57--1572,601,451 6/52 Page 66-178 2,789,340 4/ 57 Cresswell 28-76 3,041,8617/62 Kasey 66-195 3,077,757 2/63 Bobo et al. 66-178 3,085,410 4/63Loizillon 66-185 FOREIGN PATENTS 765,882 1/ 5 7 Great Britain. 782,4389/ 57 Great Britain.

RUSSELL C. MADER, Primary Examiner. DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

